Thursday, June 25, 2015

The lives of our political opponents matter. Not their physical lives, we don't care about that. It's their cultural lives, their cultural symbols, their values, morals and mores that matter. To defeat our political enemies we must utterly destroy all the factors that give their lives value, meaning and structure. And, let's be honest, we do want the complete and utter destruction of all who might disagree with us in any way.This attitude of complete cultural destruction has led the left to try to eliminate everything remotely connected to the pop culture "Confederate Flag" icons of the conservative and especially southern society.This excuse for such destruction of an icon is, of course, the senseless murder of the nine black church members at the hands of white supremacist Dylann Roof in Charlotte last week.But, as horrific as those murders were, they are not the subject of this post. Instead it is the remarkable reaction that has swept our entire culture in just a few short days, to effectively ban all things remotely connected to the Civil War. As a Sociology major in College this is simply stunning to behold. This is the equivalent of a paleontologist discovering the bone of an undiscovered species of dinosaur. Rarely do you get to see what can only be described as a tidal wave of coordinated social activity happening across all political spectrums, all races, all economic classes, all at once. This isn't simply South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley suggesting the Confederate Flag be removed from the Statehouse grounds. That might have started the chain reaction, but look how far its come!Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Sears and more are pulling everything Confederate off the shelves. States are pulling down flags and statues and memorials. Film critics are calling for the withdrawal of the movie "Gone With The Wind," allowing it only to be shown in museums and only on special occasions. Amazon and Walmart are "suggesting" authors or publishers revise their cover art if it contains anything related to the Civil War. Will we ban books from schools and public libraries? Polygon, the gaming news website, reports that Apple was quickly affected by the societal groupthink with a form of censorship that is breathtaking to behold:"Now, it appears that Apple has decided to join them by pulling many Civil War wargames from the App Store. As of the writing of this story, games like Ultimate General: Gettysburg and all the Hunted Cow Civil War games are nowhere to be found. Apple is famous for reaching for the axe rather than the scalpel when it comes to political issues (like rejecting Hunted Cow's Tank Battle 1942 for depicting Germans and Russians as enemies), so this move doesn't come as a great surprise." Can we erase history? It appears Apple is going to try. But they are not alone. When Republican Governors like Robert Bentley of Alabama personally remove Confederate Flags and further suggest any school named after a Civil War General be renamed, memorials removed and school mascots banned, you realize we have a seed change turning into a tsunamiUntil two or three days ago, Walmart admits it had virtually never had a complaint about pop culture Confederate merchandise. The public outcry, mostly on social media, happening that quickly.People tend to jump on the bandwagon. They love to be on the "winning side." What they may have never noticed Thursday, becomes issue #1 by Friday.How long will this last? Will there eventually be blow back. So far only (former) Senator Jim Webb has offered any caution or defense. Certainly his thoughtful and nuanced response absolutely dooms any hope he had of a Presidential candidacy.